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Thursday, December 19, 2013

I am on a short hiatus at the moment, as I need to finish my damn novel, among other things, but Skye Fairwin has nominated me for a Sunshine Award. I am incredibly honored to know that she thinks of me as a blogger who "positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere," especially considering that this blog is dangling by a thread. I try when I do post, though. I really do. So, the gig says I need to post ten facts about myself. I'm not very interesting, though, so this will be difficult.

1. I do most, if not all, of my planning for stories in a sketchbook. This way, I can squeeze in words in every available space without pesky notebook lines getting in the way and doodle along with my brainstorming. I have two whole sketchbooks dedicated only to writing-related stuff.

2. Just like Skye, I started out on Booksie (nearly six years ago now). I will probably never, ever post another story online again (knock on wood) but I still think Booksie was one of the greatest periods of my life. I met so many writers and learned so much about own writing on there.

3. I've been on every edge of the USA, but I've never traveled outside of my country. I dream of touring Europe one day, though, starting with Ireland.

4. I have a severe addiction to lip balm. My EOS collection rivals that of Miley Cyrus'.

5. I've been working on my current WIP for around 4 to 5 years now. It's evolved drastically from the very first words I penned, but I didn't finish the first draft until May 2012. Call it what you may: dedication, laziness, or a chunky smoothie of the two, but I'm still in love with this stupid story. It keeps me up at night and burdens my every action with guilt, but the feeling of working on it is unequivocal to anything else in this world.

The very first cover I made for it! This is so old.

This is a newer, less sucky one I made for a challenge during the Unofficial June Camp NaNoWriMo thingy I did with my lovely Writer's circle. *

7. For some reason, when I first started drinking coffee, I drank it black. I don't know how or why (maybe I thought it was cooler?) because now I find it disgusting. Pass me my gourmet flavored creamers please and thank you.

8. ...I may be a spoiled coffeeholic.

9. The closest I've ever come to meeting a celebrity** was when I went to see the Actors From The London Stage perform Twelfth Night and I noticed that the actress playing Viola/Cesario was the girl who played Olive in Ella Enchanted (one of my favorite movies when I was little).

Seriously, I've never even been to a concert. Or a book-signing. 10. I've never held a job, and I'm starting to think that I will never be able to. Not a real one, at least. That whole getting up early and taking orders doesn't bode well for me. Expectations, schmexpectations.

*If you're confused, Elle Flynn was my alias for several years as I was (am) terrified of combining my real life with my writing life. I still refuse to talk about writing out loud with my normal (I mean this in the least offensive way possible) friends.**Chief Justice John G. Roberts gave a speech at the graduation ceremony at my school last year, and it was kind of a big deal, but for whatever reason almost meeting Olive was more exciting to me. I don't care much for politics.

I hereby nominate all of the people that I nominated the last time I was tagged for an award:

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

I had a freaking plan. I made a schedule and everything. And then life got in the way and "accidentally" dropped my plans into a water drain during a rain storm.
First, as I mentioned in my last post, a bunch of personal crap got in the way, forcing me to delay my plans for just a bit.
BUT THEN, I went on a college visit. Brought my computer, stayed in hotel room, did some shopping in the biggest mall ever, and went home. When I got home, guess what I did not find in my bag.

The charger to my laptop.

This happened nearly four weeks ago, and I just received the power cord from the hotel two days ago. Kinda flushed my NaNo goals down the toilet. And I don't know what that means for the manuscript deadline I set myself. And because I'm so behind in all of my classes and my writing life, I also don't know what this means for my dusty blog series. I mean, I will continue it. I just don't know when. This Friday? Next Friday? Ugh.
So, if you need me, I'll be drowning in all of the academic papers I have to write before this week is up.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

Ah, yes, I forgot. Skye Fairwin for some reason decided I was worthy of being nominated for a Liebster Blog Award. Although I don't entirely see your logic behind this, thank you, Skye. I shall do my best with it.

Rules of the Liebster Award:

Link back to the person who nominated you

Answer the 10 questions that are given to you by the nominator

Nominate 10 other bloggers for this award who have less than 200 followers

Create 10 questions for your nominees to answer

Let the nominees know that they have been nominated by going to their blogs and notifying them

My Answers

When did you first start to see yourself as a writer? This is a difficult question to answer, 'cause really, any kid who picks up a pen and writes the first (and in many cases, only) words of a story considers herself a writer. I've been considering myself a writer for several years now--I'm not even sure how many. Seven, maybe? *silence as I count it out on my fingers* Yeah, seven. But then, every other year or so, I go through this huge epiphany-type thing where I change one little thing about my process and it's like, "Now THIS is writing. What the hell was I doing before? Nothing, that's what. I was such an amature. This is what it feels like to be a real writer." So I guess the more I write, the more I feel like a writer? Wow, WHAT an elaborate answer. *cough* word-abuser *cough*

What was the first story you remember writing about? It had something to do with a car crash and a murder mystery, mostly derived from all of the Law and Order I watched as a kid. That's all that I remember, apart from having handwritten eighteen pages of it and making everyone read it. I was, like, ten.

What do you blog about and why? A bunch of random writing crap so far, but I'm starting a series of blog posts connecting art and writing, which should help me keep a more structured blog.

Who is your idol? Maggie Stiefvater, I suppose?

Besides writing, do you engage in any other creative/artistic pursuits? (E.g. painting, composing, etc.) I do artsy things, like draw, paint, sculpt/carve. I also watch a lot of tv, does that count?

If you were sucked into your story world, how long would you survive? Probably a while, because I'd do as I was told. (I pretend I'm not, but really, I think I'm too much of a wimp to die for liberty and justice and dignity and all that crap. I'd probably just try to make the best of what I have there.)

If you could live during any historical period, when would it be and why? Um, now, I guess? I mean, being able to wear long flowy dresses and having servants and stuff would be cool, but being able to shower everyday and having rights and stuff is even cooler. Also, there's no wifi in history.

Where do you hope to be in ten years time? Alive. Living on my own. Hopefully published. Hopefully multiple times. Working on stories. Making art. In love. Living somewhere pretty, preferably in the middle of a forest. Self-employed-ish. Doing whatever the hell I want. Some-what well off (money wise).

Which of your characters is your favourite and why? Devlin, because he's dead and grumpy and constantly has to hide that to please others.

If you were given one wish, what would it be? That for each wish I make, I get two more.

Friday, July 26, 2013

In a week or so, I'm taking off on a roadtrip with my mom to go look at schools. Art schools. I don't think I'm really that talented of an artist--I prefer to pretend my specialty is my writing--but it's still something I really enjoy. Especially if I'm creating something that has to do with my writing. So, for a lack of a better blog post, I'm going to show you pictures I drew for my current work in progress, Everlae. A lot of the time, I have to draw out a scene or a specific object in order to figure out how to write it. I make a lot of floor plans and drawings of empty rooms (which never get finished.) I used to think of drawing and company as a sort of side hobby and never really dedicated too much time to it until this past year. Now, I've come to realize that drawing and writing come hand in hand to me--I love doing both as long as there's a story involved. 40% of my sketchbooks are illustrations of Fairy Tales, 20% still lifes, 20% random doodles, and 20% notes for my writing. I guess you could say drawing is very much just a part of my writing process.
Warning: many of the images you are about to see are of poor quality and are not finished.

This was my first attempt at watercolor:

And this was my second attempt:

I'm not sure what attempt this was, but it's watercolors too:

And here's the sketchbook version of that:

Since I'm considering going into animation, I asked my art teacher what I could do help myself prepare. She told me to create characters. So, the following is where I tried to draw my characters from my novel a la Disney:

This is an unfinished family portrait for my male MC:

Here is where I was trying to figure out what weapons my characters carried and what clothes they wore:

I was trying to show the change my female MC goes through during the story:

Unfinished drawing of my antagonist:

Semi-realistic drawing of my female MC (colored pencils):

Unfinished map:

Unfinished setting for a scene:

Unfinished random scene:

Ditto:

Some brainstorming for this weird creature I created for my story:

Aaaaaand a floorplan for the house my male MC grew up in:

What are some things you do for you novels that aren't actually writing?

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Opinions aren't knowledge, facts aren't opinions, and knowledge, well, is a combination of the two antonyms. Lately, I've been reading the one star reviews on my favorite and not so favorite books on Goodreads, and I'm...I don't know, frustrated? Confused? One problem I have with non-writers is that they're NOT WRITERS. They don't understand what it takes to write a novel. That said, readers expect to be pleased with the books they read, which is not unreasonable. Everyone is allowed to not like something. I just wish some people were a bit more educated so they can correctly identify why they didn't like something. So many of the reviews I've read are conflicting and unclear, so I've put together a little list of some examples I saw and some I came up with on my own on reasons not to like a book and my responses to them. (You will notice that I get progressively lazier as this post goes on. Sorry.)Not Well WrittenThis is the most frequent description I see in reviews, and possibly the most unclear a reviewer can be. I hate it when this is all they say. Is it targeting the prose itself or the plot? The characters or the author's voice? It's okay to say that you just didn't like the book. I don't like a lot of things for reasons I don't quite understand. But if you don't know exactly why you didn't like the book, don't use the excuse that it was not well written without an explanation, because alone, the phrase implies that there are many things wrong with the book that may not be true. Love triangles

Ugh. These piss me off too. Not only do I usually not like whichever love interest comes into the story second, but it also makes me hate the main character. The main character in these situations are usually so selfish, bouncing back and forth between two different relationships because they can't bear to make a decision. They don't want to hurt anyone. They can't fathom the idea of not having either person in their life. Honestly, though? Cheating just makes the pain that much worse. It implies that the initial person the character was with wasn't good enough for them. Just freaking chose one guy or the other. If he's not good enough for you, then he's not good enough for you. If you don't like him, then you don't like him. If you still have feelings for him, but you like the other guy too, keep in mind that you have history with the first guy (which is the most important thing, in my opinion) and that the new guy is probably just a short term fling. But whatever the situation is, just make a decision and cut your losses.

Unhealthy Romances

This is a bit of a problem in YA literature. Usually, when an author tries to pull off the whole bad boy image for the love interest, it goes awry and you get Edward Cullen or Patch Cipriano. They stalk their girlfriends, physically and mentally abuse them, control them like they're property, among other things. I mean, okay, the stories are alluring. Some girls find bad boys sexy, and they like the attention and devotion they see in these boys. It's fine to read about, I guess, but it's worrisome how many girls will get the impression that that's how a relationship is supposed to be. I was in a relationship once where the guy did not allow me to even speak to other guys, didn't want me hanging out with my friends anymore, only wanted me to shop at a specific store and wear specific things, implied that I wasn't good enough for him (I do not kid, he once said, "You need to join a sport and start losing weight because all the girls I date are star athletes." And I'm not even slightly overweight.), and would constantly try to force me to do things I did not want to do. It's a dangerous path, and when we already live in a society where girls put so much pressure on themselves to be like the models they see on TV...well, we need better examples of how real relationships are supposed to work.

Purple ProseThis is a toughie, and very opinion based. For example, I think the following quotes are beautiful, and other reviewers said that the quotes made them want to throw up."I always wonder about raindrops.

I wonder about how they're always falling down, tripping over their own feet, breaking their legs and forgetting their parachutes as they tumble right out of the sky toward an uncertain end. It's like someone is emptying their pockets over the earth and doesn't seem to care where the contents fall, doesn't seem to care that the raindrops burst when they hit the ground, that they shatter when they fall to the floor, that people curse the days the drops dare to tap on their doors." Tareheh Mafi, Shatter Me. “Happiness. It was the place where passion, with all its dazzle and drumbeat, met something softer: homecoming and safety and pure sunbeam comfort. It was all those things, intertwined with the heat and the thrill, and it was as bright within her as a swallowed star." Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke and Bone“This time of year, I live and breathe the beach. My cheeks feel raw with the wind throwing sand against them. My thighs sting from the friction ofthe saddle. My arms ache from holding up two thousand pounds of horse. I have forgotten what it is like to be warm and what a full night’s sleep feels like and what my name sounds like spoken instead of shouted across yards of sand.I am so, so alive.” Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio RacesIs there the risk of being too pretty? Yes, most definitely yes. This, for example, would make my eyes cross if I read it in a novel, "He wrapped a long, thin finger around the sturdy handle of the shiny black receptacle. Slowly, he hoisted the ceramic vessel to his pale pink lips. The steaming liquid rolled acridly around his sensitive tongue, evoking an involuntary reaction to the South American beverage's bitter taste. The liquid was a stark black, reflecting the pale glow from the screen of his rectangular computer monitor. His concerned green eyes darted from one serifed letter to another, drinking in each words meaning as purposefully as he drank in his coffee."I guess I don't have too much to say on this topic. People just don't seem to like it when authors experiment with their voices. Annoying Main Character
If you don't like the main character, it can destroy a story for you. However, be careful how you say this in a review because you could possibly end up offending someone. PredictabilityWhen you read a lot of novels and watch a lot of movies, you become very good at guessing outcomes, so it's hard for authors to slip one past you. Be happy when they do, and don't be mad when they don't because what you were able to predict may be the big shock someone else. But yeah, sometimes you can tell if a writer didn't try very hard with her plot twists.

Slow PacingPacing is one reason why I don't get along with very many classics. If a story has a slow build up, I expect it to have a killer climax--and if it doesn't, I feel like I wasted all that time for nothing. Sometimes slow pacing is just necessary to give the story the perspective it deserves. I think it took me several weeks, if not months, to read The Scorpio Races and Beautiful Creatures because they moved slower, but they were both worth it at the end. If the book is moving too slowly for you, I think you should still give it a chance. Slow build ups usually have killer climaxes.

Bad Resolution

I read this book, the first in a series, where the author ended the book in a cliffhanger. Cliffhangers are usually good, but this author did it wrong. See, she didn't resolve anything. It felt like I was reading a book and then lost the last 150 pages that were supposed to explain who the bad guy was, why the main character was like that, and what happened after the climax. To me, a cliff hanger is supposed to be a new development. Like, after the climax you start to think everything is okay again, and then BAM. The author hits you with a new development, which leads into the plot of the next book, and then ends the story.

That's the one example I remember where I was truly pissed off with the way a book ended. As long as the book resolves everything and gives me the room to imagine what the rest of their life is like, I'm okay. If they over describe a resolution (Breaking Dawn, anyone?) I'm irritated. If they don't resolve anything at all, I'm completely unhinged. Some people, like The Doctor, don't like endings. That's fine. Just don't say that the author resolved the story badly because you didn't like it, say what exactly it was that they forgot to resolve.

Cheating POVI've been called out on this matter more than once by critique partners. Each time I went to fix it, I thought to myself, "Why did I think that was okay?" But the other night while I was reading I discovered why. Here's a quote from Dreamless by Josephine Angelini, "'I can't believe you can force yourself to go down there at all. I don't think I could do it.' Claire shuddered, remembering her own recent brush with death when Matt hit Lucas with his car. Claire had almost died in the accident, and her soul had traveled down to the dry lands--the outskirts of the Underworld. The memories of that place still frightened her, weeks later."Reading that, wouldn't you expect the novel to be written in Claire's perspective? Nope! This particular chapter was written in Helen's point of view. How the hell would she know what exactly her friend was remembering and feeling? Helen is not a mind reader. While Dreamless is good, I'm beginning to notice that Angelini is a frequent offender of these little POV slips. There are other ways to describe how outside characters are feeling without accidentally slipping into their point of view, and there are certainly other ways to remind the reader of what happened in the last book. Helen could have just simply informed us that Claire had been in an accident that sent her to the Underworld.

Sappy Romance and Insta-Love

I like books that have some passion, but not a lot. If I wanted a lot, I'd read a straight up romance. I don't know how I feel about Insta-Love. When my grandfather was a teen, he saw this picture of my grandmother in a yearbook or at a diner or something and immediately said, "I'm going to marry that girl." They'd never even met before that, and yet they were together for over forty years--until death did them part. So I guess if it weren't for "Insta-Love", I wouldn't be here today. I still like it better in stories when there's a lot of build up to a relationship. I believe that friendship should come first. If the story has insta-love and no other explanations as to why the characters like each other, then that's a little sloppy.

Being too original that it's just obnoxious

I don't believe anyone can be "too original". To me, the more original it is, the better.

When characters are too perfect

Sure, okay.

When characters are not perfect and make too many mistakes/unlikable decisions

Um?

Just say you don't like the characters--don't blame the other for the characters' mistakes. Humans are supposed to make mistakes.

Ew! Too many names

I'm not good with names. I can't even remember the names of characters in my own novels (I constantly have to go back and look at my previous drafts and outlines). My friends call me an owl, not because I'm an insomniac, but because whenever they're gossiping I'm always, like, "Wait, who's that again?" So when novels have a large cast, I'm always so lost. (Especially when they have weird names--like in the Daughter of Smoke and Bone. ZooZoo? Kangaroo? Activia? Cashmere? Whaaat.)

Flashbacks

Unless they are of vital importance and unless they are done extremely well, flashbacks can be annoying halts in the plot's development. So I can see why people will not like a book because of them--it's like starting a whole new story right smack in the middle of a story. It's distracting.

Unoriginal Plot

Plot is a formula. Plots get used over and over again to serve different story's purposes. No plot is entirely original. So unless the author is copying a scene from a different story almost word for word, action for action.

Here's an example that annoys me.

From The Vampire Diaries: The Awakening (which was written in 1991)

"If I once let go, what's to keep me from changing you, or killing you? The passion is stronger than you can imagine. Don't you understand yet what I am, what I can do?"

She stood there and looked at him quietly, her chin raised slightly. It seemed to enrage him.

"Haven't you seen enough yet? Or do I have to show you more? Can't you picture what I might do to you?" He strode over to the cold fireplace and snatched out a long piece of wood, thicker than both Elena's wrists together. With one motion, he snapped it in two like a match stick. "Your fragile bones," he said.

Across the room was a pillow from the bed; he caught it up and with a slash of his nails left the silk cover in ribbons. "Your soft skin." Then he moved toward Elena with preternatural quickness; he was there and had a hold of her shoulders before she knew what was happening. He stared into her face for a moment, then, with a savage hiss that raised the hairs at the nape of her neck, drew his lips back.

It was the same snarl she'd seen on the roof, those white teeth bared, the canines grown to unbelievable length and sharpness. They were fangs of a predator, a hunter. "Your white neck," he said in a distorted voice.

Sounds a lot like that, "As if you could outrun me" scene in Twilight, doesn't it?

Not Enough Research

Lazy authors are lazy.

And now, for quotes from other people:On Twitter, I asked what were some people's pet peeves when reading.

Here's a quote I took from a peeved reviewer on Goodreads (I can't remember who, though...O_O)"When are pop­u­lar young adult authors going to pro­vide more to the char­ac­ter­i­za­tion of their main pro­tag­o­nists than: Irre­sistible, unique out­sider, in love with a guy?

Can’t male pro­tag­o­nists have other qual­i­ties than: in love with main char­ac­ter, hot, tragic back­story to illicit exces­sive brooding?"Tawna Fenske: "Short for “the big misunderstanding,” this is one of those ancient plot devices that never ceases to annoy the ever lovin’ snot out of me. It’s where the story’s conflict centers around something that could be cleared up if the characters just sat their pouty butts down and had a 30-second conversation. Jane sees Herbert in Victoria’s Secret, and rather than saying hello and asking if he’s buying her the latex thong she wants, she assumes he’s a cross-dresser and spends the next 250 pages sulking.""I’ll admit it, critique partner Cynthia Reese taught me this phrase by pointing out my own offense in some long-ago manuscript. As You Know, Bob is a clumsy method of introducing backstory by having one character spontaneously lecture another with information they both already know. The result is a conversation that’s stilted, awkward, and as natural as Chelsea Charms’ sweater potatoes (Er, that’s a fairly benign Wikipedia link. I make no guarantees what you’ll find googling her name on your own)."